BEV GOLDMAN

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Bev Goldman’s Opinion & Analysis

Week Ending 10 September 2014

1. Scholar to UN: You’re “leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism”

Adam Kredo, the Washington Free Beacon, 9 September 2014

A leading human rights advocate accused the United Nations and its member nations of being “the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism” and “inciting murderous intolerance towards” Jewish people during an unprecedented speech Monday at the international body’s headquarters in New York City.

2. For Israel, the beginning of wisdom is to admit mistakes 

Avi Shlaim, The Guardian, 7 September 2014

Israel should embrace Palestinian unity for its own security. A further land grab will only inflame tensions… Hamas succeeded in sending a clear message that Israel would have no peace and no security as long as it continued to occupy Palestinian territory.

3. Who killed the Israeli left?

Shmuel Rosner, New York Times, 7 September 2014

International encouragement of Israel’s left was instrumental in killing it. The outside world promoted the unpopular views of an Israeli political minority, giving the left an inflated sense of its own importance domestically. This illusion led to despair, and then to alienation from mainstream Israeli society – all resulting in a further reduction of the left’s political allure.

4. For Vogue, Palestinian is the new Israeli

Sigal Samuel, The Jewish Daily Forward, 7 September 2014

When Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour was preparing the cover shoot for her very first issue back in 1988, she chose an Israeli model – Michaela Bercu – to grace the front of the glossy magazine. This summer, as Wintour prepared for the relaunch of the magazine’s website, she chose a Palestinian-American model – Gigi Hadid – to recreate the iconic cover.

5. Hamas and the delusion of victory

Amir Taheri, Asharq Al-Awsat, 5 September 2014

Haniyeh’s message to Gazans was clear: we start a war when we like and finish it when we like! You count for nothing! Worse still, it was clear that the decision to start a war had not been discussed even inside Hamas. A handful of men operating as a star chamber ran the macabre show.  However, Haniyeh’s boastful speech, in front of a crowd whose silence was more telling than the loudest of protests, may have been premature. A day later, it was the turn of the daily newspaper Kayhan, published by the office of the “Supreme Guide,” to claim “victory in Gaza” on behalf of the Khomeinist regime in Tehran.

6. Measuring Israel’s conduct in Gaza

Uri Dromi, The Times of Israel, 5 September 2014

What bothers Israelis is that world public opinion can’t see that unlike Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, which are thousands of kilometres away, death tunnels from Gaza open up in the backyard of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, 500 metres away, and short-range mortars from Gaza have just killed two of the kibbutz members.

 7. Why Human Rights Council of the UN is “eyeless in Gaza”

David Pannick, The London Times, 4 September 2014

The determination of the council to abuse human rights for political ends is undermining the role of international law.

8. Poll shows punishment of Palestinians is not working

Eamonn McCann, Irish Times, 4 September 2014

There have been four major Israeli assaults on Gaza since the 2006 election. In June 2006 about 400 Palestinians and seven Israelis died; in 2008-2009 about 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died; in 2012 an estimated 170 Palestinians and six Israelis died; and this year more than 2,100 Palestinians and 68 Israelis, four of them civilians, died.  Who can blame Palestinians if they have come to believe that the West is a hypocrite when it talks of democracy and that, if they want to pursue the dream of a state of their own, the logical course is to follow the most determined of the fighters left in the field?

9. Muslims sexually enslaving children – a global phenomenon

Raymond Ibrahim, Middle East Forum, 2 September 2014

The question begs itself: If Muslim minorities have no fear of exploiting “infidel” women and children in non-Muslim countries—that is, where Muslims themselves are potentially vulnerable minorities—how are Muslims throughout the Islamic world, where they are dominant, treating their vulnerable, non-Muslim minorities?  The answer is a centuries-long, continents-wide account of nonstop sexual predation.

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